Riverside Foraging Guide

[Elton]

May be of interest to those of you with beards and/or landrovers:

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/News/riverside...ging-guide.html

 

[Andy Macfarlane]

Anyone watch Hugh's Autumn banquet special when he and his equally stanky friends went-a-foraging?? The kinda well-spoken lardy bloke came back from Cornwall I think (topical) with the biggest Oysters I've ever seen. They were actually escapee farmed oysters that had latched onto a concrete bridge or something of that ilk and were basically free for the picking. I was quite astounded. OK, due to the location, they had to be cooked, to be safe but they were crackers none the less.

[Steve Walker]

Yeah, I saw that. Looked impressive. The only place I've found wild oysters was on the rocks, opposite Sellafield. I decided on the whole I'd leave 'em be.

[Janet]

I'm afraid I don't possess either a beard or a Landrover, but it was still very interesting!

 

I regularly use nettles, dandelions, sorrel and elderberries/flowers, as well as the more "normal" things like wild raspberries, blackberries and those delicious little wild strawberries that grow on a disused railway track nearby.

 

Nasturtium flowers are particularly good in a salad, with a lovely peppery taste, but it really annoys my friend when I decimate her hanging baskets! Crystallised rose petals are also rather nice.

 

I also know where there are good supplies of wild plums, damsons and sloes. I have a friend who makes the most delicious damson and sloe gin. I always wonder what the guys at Tesco think when she orders 20 bottles each autumn!

 

I just wish I knew more about fungi, as we have huge amounts of various kinds in my local woodland, but I don't know what's edible and what isn't.

 

Janet

[Andy Macfarlane]

Hmm yes, as demonstrated on the very same episode of riverside, Hugh himself had managed to collect a basket of quite poisonous mushies, so I think if anyone is going to go mushy picking, they should go with a guide as I've found that photographic guides are very deceptive and having been a chef for most of my working life, I've eaten some extremely barmy looking fungi, knowing there are extremely deadly fungi that look almost identical. I wouldn't trust my own experience of handling mushrooms, so I really don't advise anyone should take it up as a hobby without at least taking a course or going with someone who really knows their stuff.

[Steve Walker]

You can collect mushrooms safely easily enough with a photographic guide and key, but you must stick to species which cannot be reasonably mistaken for anything toxic. Things like the hedgehog mushroom, giant puffball and the edible boletus species are hard to mistake for anything lethal. Large parasols are hard to mistake for anything else. I would have said that chanterelles are safe, in that you are only really likely to mistake them for the worthless but harmless false chanterelle, but those numpties who recently poisoned themselves with webcaps prove the exception. I don't know how the hell you can mistake a webcap for a chanterelle, unless your diagnostic method is "is it vaguely the right colour", mind.

 

Ironically, the thing I'd advise people not to do unless they know what they are doing is to go picking anything that looks like an ordinary cultivated or field mushroom.

[Andy Macfarlane]

The problem with photographic guides is they don't show the mushroom from it's juvenile appearance, right upto it's full 'bloom' state and I think that's why mistakes happen. Juvenile Fly Agaric for instance look quite tame. Light brown, dark underneath, no spots or warning colours and could be mistaken for many edible species. Wait till Christmas and it has a white frilled stem, dark orange fronds, a bright red cap with white spots and gnome on top with a fishing rod. Not so appealing but it does demonstrate how the same species of fungus can look quite different. Moisture, light, drought, ground conditions etc. can also have an effect of the appearance of a mushroom. Most guides will also tell you to look for Amanita mushrooms from October to December but I've seen them growing from early August and they're often still out in February. Fly Agaric are fairly obvious as far as mushrooms go. I just don't believe these books and guides are quite as clear-cut as they would often have you believe and where fungi are concerned, you may not get a second chance to make a mistake. Even if you do survive a poison mushroom mistake, it could leave requiring dialysis for the rest of your life. I would eat any mushrooms unless I was 100% certain about what I was handling.

Edited November 17, 2008 by Andy Macfarlane

[Steve Walker]

People need to be aware of the risks, and their own limitations, but there are a number of species which can't reasonably be mistaken for anything dangerous.

[Barry C]

Please please please unless you are 100% sure do not eat wild fungi. They can not be collected and eaten safely as has been suggested without a comprehensive knowledge of the subject. To be safe you should, unless you know a knowledgable person to identify your prize study the subject sereously until you can identify without a shadow of doubt.

 

Some of the toxins found in fungi are amongst the most potent known. Often the fungi that contain them smell very mushroomy and I am told taste good. Many collectors in Europe where knowledge and collection is widespread die every year from mushroom poisoning.

 

Probably the most important factor for most people is the fact that only two or three species are at all worthwhile to eat and most of the others that are usually described as edible are a complete culinary waste of time. If you then consider that even the best ones will often be maggot riddled (not big enough for bait) or waterlogged you will find Tesco's finest are the best.

[lyn]

Great link well done Ellton and like Janet I don't have a beard or landrover. Hughs 'Cook on the wildside' is great for free food but I also carry 'Food for Free' by Richard Mabey which is really good for foraging. On sky (280) they often have a programme on Foraging for food which is a good watch.

 

When we are Scilly we really live of the sea and land. I even tried limpets this year in our sea food risotto! I have dug up some great horseraddish down the road from us. You just have to look there is a full larder out there for free.

 

Janet, clover flowers are nice in salad as well or try them battered and fried.

 

I see he has 2 others, the Cornish one will come in handy when we are down there next summer.

 

lyn